Brewer's: Club

A society of persons who club together, or form themselves into a knot or lump. The word was originally applied to persons bound together by a vow. (German, gelübde) (See Cards 4 clubs.)

“[1190] was the era of chivalry, for bodies of men uniting themselves by a sacred vow, gelubde, which word and thing have passed over to us in a singularly dwindled condition, `club' we call it; and the vow does not rank very high” —Carlyle: Frederick the Great vol i. p 111

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